


Of Storms and Golden Skies

by zzoaozz



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Het
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 14:24:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/775215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zzoaozz/pseuds/zzoaozz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kagome and Sesshoumaru spend time together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Storms and Golden Skies

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before the ending of the series and so is non-cannon.

"Why do you and Inuyasha hate each other so much? It can't be just because he's half human." Kagome nearly flinched as Sesshoumaru turned cold eyes on her. She refused to look down from the challenge and locked her brown eyes with his golden ones in silent defiance. 

"Oh? You know me so well, do you, girl?" 

Kagome ignored Jaken who covered his eyes with his hands and groaned. "I've been helping Inuyasha collect the shards and track Naraku for five years now and we've met dozens of times. Did you ever once just stop and talk to us? Did you ever try to settle your differences with Inuyasha in any way other than beating the crap out of him? No! Of course not! No one knows you, you won't let anyone close enough to know you!" 

In less than a heartbeat, the girl found herself pressed against the rough bark of the maple behind her. Her hands were pinned above her head at the wrist and Sesshoumaru was in her face, his breath was hot against her ear. She was incredibly aware of his body crushed against hers. He was warm, hot actually, and hard muscled, and so long-limbed. His knee rested against the tree trunk between her thighs. His chest pressed against hers. His hair fell forward shutting the rest of the world out in a moonlight silver curtain. She found herself barely able to breathe. Her heart was thundering in her chest. She swallowed heavily. 

Sesshoumaru's voice was low, unbearably intimate, against her ear. "Do you really want to be that close to me? Are you that brave or that stupid?" 

"I am not afraid of you!" She had meant to shout angrily, but her voice betrayed her and the words came out as an uncertain whisper. She made the mistake of trying to squirm out of his grasp. 

His reaction was immediate, he bit her shoulder. She yelped in surprise as sharp fangs pierced her top and the skin beneath it with equal ease. The four punctures wounds burned and stung, she could feel a warm stickiness trickle down her neck as blood welled out around the incisors. She felt the low growl that vibrated in the youkai's throat. She was afraid, but not too afraid to register that the fangs had penetrated only deep enough to make the blood flow and his other teeth had not cut her at all. If he had wanted to, he could have torn muscles or tendons or even ripped through a major artery. For that matter, he could have used his acid-like poison on her. 

She forced herself to speak ever aware of the foreign hardness of the fangs invading her flesh, the heat and wetness of his mouth on her shoulder, the hard muscle of his thigh separated from her own bare leg by only the thin silk of his kimono. "Are you going to hurt me, Sesshoumaru, for telling the truth, for asking a simple question?" 

She was surprised when he withdrew his teeth carefully from the wound and looked up at her. She could see her blood on his lips, his amber eyes were filled with something she had never seen in them before, intense emotion. She shivered unable to tear her gaze from his. 

Without looking away from her, he spoke to his minion. "Jaken, take Rin home. I will follow later." 

If the two made any kind of protest, Kagome failed to hear it over the thundering of her own heart. She had pushed him too far. He let her hands go. Certain it was the end, she closed her eyes, shutting out the blazing heat of golden suns. She offered a silent prayer that it might be quick and painless and held her breath. 

The death blow she had expected failed to materialize. Instead, she felt Sesshoumaru's single arm snake around her waist and pull her hard against him. She felt the muscles in his legs flex against hers as if he were jumping then a high keening filled her ears. Her eyes flew open. 

They were flying. She was pressed against the youkai lord's chest. She could feel his solidity, but all she could see through her stinging eyes was a silver light that wavered and flowed all around her. She cried out and closed her eyes again, burying her face against Sesshoumaru's shoulder. She flung her arms around his neck and clung tightly to him. The feeling of his body was the only anchor to reality she could hold on to in the chaos of light and sound. 

She pushed her face higher up until her cheek encountered flesh instead of silk. Soft hair brushed across her cheek as if caressing her. She pressed her entire face against the warm skin she had found. She could smell it, clean scent of soap, the spicy fragrance that clung to his hair, and the strangely sweet scent she had come to associate with youkai in general. Tears slid from her closed eyes adding their salty tang. She bit her lip to keep from sobbing out loud and held on to her captor for dear life. 

The cry of the wind stopped as suddenly as it had begun and all motion with it. Her feet were on solid ground once more, at least her toes were. She was stretched up as far as she could reach with her face pressed up underneath Sesshoumaru's chin and her arms wrapped so hard around his neck that it had to be uncomfortable for him. Without thinking she let go and nearly fell. The arm still wrapped around her waist was the only thing holding her up. It let go as soon as she was able to still the trembling in her legs enough to stand under her own power. 

She looked up at the youkai lord expecting anger or hatred in his face but found to her surprise that he actually looked more amused than anything. The corner of his lips slanted up the tiniest bit and his eyes shone. She felt her own temper rise. 

"I suppose you think that was funny, baka!" 

"Immensely so." 

Without thinking about who she was standing there with, the girl reacted as she would with any boy and slapped the Lord of the Western lands across the face. She froze the instant she heard the solid smack of skin on skin. She wondered if the look of absolute shock on her face was as interesting as the one on his. He stared at her wide eyed and open mouthed as he raised a finger to touch the back of her hand where it still lay against his skin. She dropped it immediately and trembled as she saw the clear imprint of her palm on his pale skin. He touched the red mark gingerly with one claw and winced. 

She bit her lip and felt fresh tears well up in her eyes. Now she was dead, really dead. She watched the youkai's expression still to his normal emotionless mask then he turned away without a word and walked toward the sliding door behind them. 

"S...Sesshoumaru, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" She watched his retreating figure fearfully, but he gave no sign of hearing her. He disappeared inside leaving the door open behind him. 

 

She stared around her, this was a chance to escape. She was on a wide cherrywood deck that ran completely around a beautiful mansion. Tiered boxes full of flowers and trees were artfully arranged everywhere she looked. She could hear the slap of water beneath the floor. She ran to the edge of the deck peering over the ornately carved rails and caught her breath. Admiration and dismay warred within her. 

The mansion sat in the middle of a vast lake nestled in the hollowed out cone of a mountain. Solid stone walls rose hundreds of feet straight up around the perimeter of the lake. The waves crashed against the stone walls in a steady rhythm filling the air with spray. The sunlight from above was caught in the droplets and prismed into thousands of dancing rainbows that played across the surface. The only way into or out of this volcanic cavity was to fly straight up over the walls. She rested her head briefly on the warm fragrant wood of the railing then headed dejectedly for the open door. 

The inside of the mansion was as rich and beautiful as the outside. Real glass windows allowed the sunlight to slant in. Plants hung in pots from the ceiling and sat on wrought iron pedestals everywhere that there was enough sun. A long entry hall opened into the various rooms. All were the same polished cherry as the deck outside. 

The first room she glanced into was a formal sitting room filled with expensive looking artwork and braided silk rugs. Across the hall from it was a more casual looking living room. There was a low table and piles of pillows scattered around. A book lay on the table with a scrap of material marking a place. There was also a formal dining room with a real, raised dinner table and heavily carved chairs, an indoor kitchen, and perhaps most incredible in her opinion an indoor bathroom with both facilities and a huge clawfooted tub with a hand pump and an elaborate copper burner to heat the water. it was only after a second longing look that she moved farther down the hallway. 

There was a library crammed floor to ceiling with books and a huge desk covered with papers and writing materials. There was a fireplace in the room and a big comfortable looking padded chair sat in front of it. Beyond that were several bedrooms. They looked mostly the same, thick carpets on the floor, a raised bed made up neatly with what looked like black velvet blankets, a tall wardrobe, a wrought iron dressing table with a mirror made of glass over polished metal, and a window looking out onto the deck. The hallway ended at another door, since she had not seen Sesshoumaru yet, she surmised that he must be inside and pushed the door open. 

He was inside and he was taking his clothes off. 

She blushed scarlet but did not look away as the youkai lord turned and regarded her impassively. His demon bone pauldrans and breast plate were hanging on an armour rack beside the bed. 'His bed,' she thought and felt her face grow even warmer. He had already removed his outer garments and changed to clean pants, tight, body hugging silk trousers instead of his normal hakama. 

He ignored her and examined the fur whip he alays carried. It was stained with blood from his earlier encounter with Naraku. She knew that she was just as filthy and with the same gore. Sesshoumaru had rescued her for some reason and was taking her back to where the others were still searching for her. Of course, that was before she had opened her big mouth. 

She drug her eyes away from his muscular chest with effort and looked around his room. It was far less formal than the other rooms. His swords were placed carefully in a wall rack above his bed. There were a few personal items scattered on his dressing table and another book. There was also a bouquet of rather bedraggled looking wildflowers artlessly arranged in an elegant vase that must have cost a small fortune. She could not help smiling and bending down to smell the blossoms. 

"Rin?" 

"Yes." 

She glanced at the other items. There were a few small, carved animal figurines in ivory and jade, a slender dagger with the same crescent moon pattern on the hilt as the one on his forehead. There was a worn looking piece of rice paper folded into a small square. Without thinking about it, she opened it smoothing out the creases carefully. 

It was a very crude drawing and scribbled writing in a young child's awkward script. She turned and held it up to the light slanting in through the window. The drawing was of a dog, a big fluffy dog with a crescent moon on its forehead. Standing beside it, hugging it was a stick figure with two small triangles perched on top of the circle of its head. The words were poorly drawn and faded as well but she could make them out with a little effort. 'Happy birthday, big brother.' 

She gasped and looked at Sesshoumaru in shock. The youkai had donned a clean yukata, a deep gold that matched his eyes instead of his normal white. He raised an eyebrow questioning her reaction. 

"You did love Inuyasha once, you must have or you wouldn't have kept this. And he must have loved you once, or he wouldn't have made this." 

"Once upon a time. Feh! You're too old to believe in fairy tales, girl." 

She scowled back at him. "Youkai are just a fairy tale in my time!" She bit her tongue sharply. 

Sesshoumaru stared back at her as if waiting for her to continue. She could slip up as much as she wanted around most people in this time, they just ignored it when she made a remark they did not quite understand, but not Sesshoumaru. The youkai lord was highly intelligent and grasped complex concepts with surprising speed. 

"Er, um never mind, I just came in to say that I was sorry for slapping you. I was out of line." 

"Your time?" 

"Never mind." 

"I have eternity, girl. You do not." 

She blanched at the matter of fact tone of the threat. "I'm just tired and filthy. I don't know what I'm saying." 

He did not look convinced, but he turned back to the wardrobe and pulled out several garments. "Here, bathe and change. You smell like Naraku." 

"Gross, I really did not want to think about that, but thank you, O'Lord of Tact." She rolled her eyes expressively before making her way back to the bathing room. 

Only when she had figured out how to operate the burner did she lay out the clothes he had given her. They were expensive and very beautiful, they were also obviously his. The under yukata was a pale cream color and very soft, the outer layer of the kimono was a rich purple with silver fishes embroidered around the long, scooped sleeves and neck. There was also a golden obi almost exactly like the one he usually wore. The ends were purple and again embroidered in silver, not fishes but the hexagon and flower pattern that was on his normal kimono. 

She climbed into the tub letting herself sink into the wonderful heat. She closed her eyes with a sigh and ducked under the water. It stung a little in her cuts and bruises, especially the bite but even that sting felt good. She had found soap and a pitcher of something that smelled sweet and spicy, just like Sesshoumaru's hair. She had brought it with her on the hunch that it might be this age's version of shampoo. She found to her delight that she was right. She scrubbed herself spotless and then just soaked letting her mind drift. Relaxed and warm she fell asleep. 

She woke when the water grew cold enough to make her shiver. She climbed out quickly, only then realizing that she had forgotten to look for towels first. She glanced around and saw two large soft towels folded neatly on top of the clothes. She shivered again more violently and quickly wrapped herself in one, twisting the other around her hair. She was too grateful to be angry that someone had slipped in and left them while she was sleeping. 

Someone...there was no one else in the mansion except for her and Sesshoumaru. She had been through the whole house, she would have seen any servants or other guests. She began to dress slowly. Sesshoumaru had realized that she had not asked for a towel and like the perfect host had brought her one. He would have seen her asleep in the tub, but he did not wake her up. 

She blushed suddenly, he would have seen her in the tub, all of her. No, that was not right, she had lathered her hair twice and shamelessly used the soap. Even cold, there had still been a thin layer of bubbles over the water. He could not have seen anything unless he deliberately peeked and he did not seem the type to do that. He was definitely nothing like Inuyasha or Miroku in that department. 

She finished dressing and laughed as she held up her arms. The sleeves hung down like wings, the hem dragged on the floor. The waist actually fit fairly well, Sesshoumaru had a flat stomach and slender hips. She was very much aware of that from the earlier episode. She chuckled and wrapped the sash one more turn around her waist and tied it in a rather sloppy bow. She would turn into a pervert herself if she kept on thinking about that. She ran her fingers through her hair then noticed a hairbrush lying on the bench. 

"He's so thoughtful. How can he be so cruel?" 

She finished grooming and looked around for her school uniform. it was nowhere to be seen. 

She made her way back out into the hallway and looked around hesitantly. Somewhere, she heard the crackle of a fire. She followed the sound to the small living room that she had seen before. Sesshoumaru was sitting on the floor in front of the fire reading. There was food set up on the table, tea, fruits, cheeses, bread, even what looked like little cakes. She felt her stomach growl. 

"Eat." He did not look up from his book but she was certain he had heard her tummy. 

She shrugged and helped herself, eating her fill. When she finished, she hesitated a moment, then caught up the silver and porcelain tea service and carried it over to the hearth. She sat it on the grate and settled down on a plump pillow beside the youkai lord. She poured two cups and held one out to him. He looked up at her surprised but took it gingerly setting his book aside to hold it between his hands. 

She turned the book enough to read the title. To her surprise it was printed in an English dialect instead of Japanese. "You read English?" 

"Hai, do you?" 

"A little, I'm just learning in school." 

"You are a scholar?" 

"Don't sound so incredulous. I'm not exactly a scholar, but where I come from all children attend school and receive an education." 

"In your time, you mean?" 

"I told you, I was just tired and didn't know what I was saying." 

"You're lying." 

"Oh really, and just what makes you say that?" 

"I can smell when you lie." 

"Huh? Oh, that's right. I guess I forgot about you being a dog demon and all. I'm still not going to tell you about my home, though. I can't." 

"That's fine, then." 

"What do you mean by that?" 

"If you don't wish to talk about your home that's fine. I will not ask again." 

"Just like that? I don't believe you, that was too easy. You're lying." 

"Have I ever stooped to lying to you?" 

She thought hard about it for a long moment. "No, you haven't. You've tricked us and tried to kill us, but I can't remember you ever lying to us. Of course, our usual conversations involve you calling me a worthless human and me telling you to leave Inuyasha alone. That hardly leaves one room to tell the truth much less tell lies." 

To her credit, she did not spit out the mouthful of tea she had just taken when Sesshoumaru laughed. She did however, stare in a way that would have made her mother die of embarrassment. He had really laughed, she was sure of it. His eyes had definitely sparkled with amusement and crinkled a little at the corners. 

He finished his tea and sat the cup back down on the hearth. When he rose and stretched cat-like, she found that all she could do was stare wide eyed. He was so tall. 

"I am going to bathe now. Make yourself at home and call me if you need anything." 

"Sesshoumaru?" 

"Hai?" 

"Are Rin and Jaken coming here too?" 

"No, they are going to my citadel in the Western Lands." He tilted his head to one side and stared down at her thoughtfully. "Are you afraid of me?" 

"No, you've actually been very kind to me, except for biting me and scaring me half to death flying here. I'm not afraid of you. I don't think you would have brought me all this way just to kill me." 

"No? Then why did I bring you here?" 

The question caught her off guard. There was no sarcasm in his voice. He sounded as if he really wanted to know, as if she might know the answer. "I-I don't know." 

He nodded once as if that were what he expected then disappeared into the hallway. She gulped down another cup of tea and wondered why she was shivering all of the sudden. She leaned closer to the flames watching their hypnotic dance. 

The next thing she knew, She was lying against Sesshoumaru's chest. Her hands were tangled in his damp hair. He was holding her cradled like a child on his arm. He carried her to the bedroom closest to his and laid her carefully on the bed. She saw that the covers were turned down already. 

"Thank you, Sesshoumaru." She murmured sleepily into his shoulder. 

"Sleep." He pulled the covers up over her and stepped to the window opening it to the evening breeze. She was lost in peaceful dreams the moment her eyes drifted shut. 

 

Kagome bolted upright and held her breath listening for the sound that had jerked her from sleep. It came again, a muffled explosion that vibrated through the entire house. She cried out and gripped the velvet covers tightly. Her door flew open seconds later and Sesshoumaru was at her side asking if she was all right. 

"I'm fine that sound just startled me, what is it?" 

"Thunder. It echoes in this crater. Not many storms reach the summit of this mountain, those that do are usually bad." 

The youkai stood and moved to her open window leaning out and looking upward. The thunder roared again, even louder this time. He straightened back up and pulled the storm shutters in, fastening them securely from the inside, before pulling the glass window down and locking it as well. 

She heard a loud bang in the next room and jumped up with a gasp. "The other windows, I'll help you get the other windows. The panes will be smashed if we don?t get them secured." 

They moved quickly from room to room locking the windows down. The thunder became an almost continuous growl and was joined by the scouring sound of rain on the roof and deck. 

She found herself back in the small living room. Sesshoumaru had finished before her and made tea. He handed her a cup wordlessly. She accepted and smiled up around the rim at him. He was wearing his pants but nothing else and his long hair was mussed up. She had never seen the regal lord look anything less than perfect. It made him look more human somehow, almost sweet, and very young. 

"Thank you." 

She looked up at him startled. "You're welcome." Suddenly, she was very aware of his proximity and his state of undress. She also realized that she was just wearing the light undergarment. He must have removed the rest of her clothes after tucking her in. The yukata was actually longer than her school uniform, but that was familiar dress, and her school uniform did not have such a deep cut neckline that showed off the cleavage she had finally developed. She felt a blush spread across her cheeks and dropped her gaze quickly to her cup. 

She felt his clawed hand curl around her chin and tilt her head up. She met his eyes and held her breath. He was looking at her with an intensity that made her shiver. His face was so close to her that she could feel his breath stirring a lock of hair on her forehead. Abruptly he turned away from her and walked over to the fireplace, stirring up the embers with a poker. 

"Sesshoumaru?" 

"Hai." 

"Why did you bring me here?" 

"I don't know." 

"Are you angry?" 

"No." 

"Why did you bite me?" 

"I wanted to taste you."

Kagome paled at his reply. His next question shocked her into silence. 

"Do you love him?" 

She finally managed to stutter out a reply, "Him? Who, Inuyasha?" 

"Hai." 

She thought about her answer carefully. It crossed her mind that this could all be some sort of elaborate trap, but looking at the youkai lord standing there in the glow of the fire with his hair rumpled and his strangely vulnerable expression she could not bring herself to believe that. She answered honestly working it through for herself as she did. 

"I thought that I loved him. I was just fifteen then which is much younger in my w... my time than it is now. I had never felt that way before. Even when I found out about Kikyo and saw for myself that he still loved her and loved her more than me, I wanted to be with him." 

"I still care about him, I still love him, but it's different somehow. It has been ever since I saw him with Kikyo after I saved her life from Naraku's miasma. He held her and looked at her like someone had just given him his heart and soul back. I knew that I could never compete with that." 

"I expected it to hurt as bad as it did the first time I saw them together, but it didn't. I just felt tired and sad and cheated somehow." She smiled ruefully and shook her head. "Three times now, I've had the opportunity to let her die for good just by not acting. Three times, I've saved her anyway. Maybe, I'm just stupid." 

"Not stupid, good. You are a good person. I would have killed her." 

Kagome raised her brows. It had sounded like the youkai was paying her a compliment. She continued on a little more sure of herself. "I'm pretty sure now from reading and talking to my mom that I just had a crush on him. It's supposed to be different when you love someone." 

"How is it supposed to be?" 

She looked at him. He was still turned toward the fire. She could see the maroon stripes on the back of his arm and wrist. There was also a set of matching stripes that started at the small of his back on either side of his spine and curved around to disappear under the waistband of his pants. She felt a sudden urge to touch that stripe and see if it felt different than the pale, flawless skin that surrounded it. She had to close her eyes and rub them with her fists to concentrate enough to answer his question. 

"I don't really know how it's supposed to be. I know that it isn't supposed to be a selfish thing with one person giving all the time and one taking all the time. People who love each other are supposed to respect each other, sacrifice their own pleasure and even their own welfare to make the other happy, put each other first. Inuyasha never was able to do any of those things because Kikyo's ghost was always there between us. After a time, I wasn't sure if he was seeing me at all or just the reincarnation of Kikyo, a lesser copy of his true love." 

"I never knew Kikyo when she lived, but I do know this. You are superior in every way to that walking corpse." 

That was definitely a compliment. Kagome felt her cheeks heat. Without thinking about how it might sound, she continued on boldly. For the first time it felt as if someone was listening to her, listening and understanding. She felt the sadness that had haunted her since that moment begin to lift away. 

"Sometimes, I just want what Rin has in you, someone to take care of me, protect me without smothering me. She's so happy and free. She'll never want for anything, never have to do anything that she doesn't like or believe in. You'll teach her to be confident and strong and secure in herself. She won't ever need anyone else's approval, or love, or sympathy to feel good about herself. Other times, I want someone who needs me as much as I need him, a friend and a partner. Someone I can trust in who trusts in me. I used to think that there was someone like that for everyone, somewhere, a true love." 

She sighed and set the swiftly cooling tea on the table. "I suppose that's just another fairy tale and I'm a fool for believing it. I don't know why that should surprise me. Everything I think I know always turns out to be wrong anyway. Five years ago, I knew that there was no such thing as ghosts and demons. Now I face both on a regular basis. I knew that I was just an ordinary girl until a youkai pulled me through the well and ripped the Shikon no Tama out of my side and proved I wasn?t ordinary after all. I knew that the good guys always win in the end because their side is just and righteous, then I met Naraku." 

She smiled brightly and her somber tone of voice turned mischievous. "I knew up until I saw you with Rin that you were a homicidal psychopath without a heart, without an ounce of kindness or compassion. I'm glad that I was wrong about that." 

"What makes you so sure of that? I am a killer, you've seen so yourself. I'm sure Inuyasha and the old flea have told you that I am cruel, and cold hearted, merciless, and ruthless. What makes you think that I would not kill you or even Rin if it so pleased me?" 

"Since I've come here, I've learned to trust my instincts. I am the reincarnation of a powerful miko, after all. I can sense evil like Naraku or his minions even without shards. Even when you were trying to kill us for Tessaiga, I never felt any evil in you. You've changed a lot since then, too. I've seen it and sensed it. You could have gone after Naraku and had your vengeance if you had been willing to sacrifice Rin. You could have killed Kohaku instantly without taking the time to listen to our pleas or look into his eyes to see that he wanted to die. You could have killed Inuyasha when he lost his mind to his youkai blood, instead you helped him." She held up her hand to forestall his vehement denial. 

"You didn't try to take the sword again after you learned what it did." She tactfully chose not to mention Jaken's little foray with Rin. Sesshoumaru might not know about it and she did not want to get them in trouble. The wolf pack told me how you let Kouga pass without ripping his head off for being rude. You've even saved my life twice." 

"You can make all the excuses you want but between your father's fang and that little girl, somewhere, somehow, the walls around your heart began to crumble." Her voice softened. "You're hundreds of years old aren't you. The one thing you could count on to never change was you. These new feelings must be absolutely terrifying for you, Sesshoumaru." 

She looked up at him in time to see him shiver. He turned his face away from her back to the flames. She felt herself rise and walk over to the youkai. She seemed to be floating outside her own body as she brought her arms up and wrapped them around his waist. She felt him stiffen in her arms, but he did not pull away. They remained like that for a timeless moment. 

Then he turned in her embrace and pulled her close. She pressed her ear to his chest and listened to the sound of his heart beating. She felt him bury his face in her hair. 

"Kagome?" 

She shivered and pressed closer to his warm body. She had never heard him speak her name before, had never imagined hearing it in that deep, resonant voice. "Aa?" She could hear her voice trembling. 

"Be with me, tonight." 

She felt her mind flying to peaces with that simple question. Sesshoumaru, beautiful, perfect, deadly Sesshoumaru, wanted her to...to... Her mind absolutely refused to recognize the thought. 

"I've never..." 

"If you say no, that's alright. I won't ask again." 

She knew he spoke only the truth and her traitorous heart took over from her faltering mind. "Hai, Sesshoumaru. I want to be with you." 

He lifted her as easily as he would Rin and carried her once more. This time, he moved past her bedroom door to his own. He laid her down gently on his bed and sat beside her. He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers. She pressed up into the touch and it deepened into a kiss, their first kiss. 

Kagome could not breath. The youkai's gentle kiss was making her lightheaded. She could feel a tingling sensation spreading from her extremities and a fiery heat building in her core. She gave in to the impulse she had fought every time they had met and buried both her hands in his silvery mane. It was as warm and soft as she had imagined. A few heavy tresses escaped her hands and fell on either side of his face as he pulled away. 

"So pretty..." she breathed. 

"Pretty?" 

"Mmm hmm, pretty." 

"I am a powerful, dog demon, a dominant male. I am not pretty." He mock growled to underscore his point. 

"Yes, you are. I'll bet Rin and even Jaken tell you so too. Don't they?" 

"Not when they think I can hear them."

She laughed and sat up whispering against his pointed ear, "I wonder if pretty dog demons purr." 

His voice was low and husky and sent shivers over her body, "You're about to find out." He stood up and stripped away the tight pants. 

Kagome gasped and felt her cheeks heat. She had never seen a naked man before except the occasional bare bottom in a movie or a nude in a painting at a museum. Sesshoumaru was as beautiful as a statue. She ignored her instinct to look away and instead let her gaze wander over his candlelit form. 

His silver hair hung in a shimmering curtain almost to his knees in back falling just right to conceal his missing arm. His face was beautiful, male or not, from the broad forehead and intelligent golden eyes to the straight nose, thin lips, and impishly pointed chin. The crimson stripes on his cheeks and over his eyes, the blue crescent moon on his brow, and his sharply pointed ears leant him an exotic air. His long graceful neck led down to powerful shoulders, a broad chest, and a flat stomach. His long, muscular right arm ended in a surprisingly slender, fine-boned hand. Only the cruel claws hinted at the deadly poison and violence that slept inside him. Her gaze moved quickly across his narrow hips to the long shapely legs. His feet, like his hands, were slender and delicate looking. The toes ended in claws that were no less sharp than the talons at his fingertips though considerably shorter. 

He stood still for a moment letting her look at him. Then with the grace of the predator he was, he crawled onto the bed planting his knees on either side of her hips and gazing at her with the same quiet intensity that she had seen earlier. He caught the hem of the clothing she wore and deftly lifted it over her head. 

She brought her arms up instinctively to cover her breasts, but his low voice stopped her. "Don't hide yourself from me." 

She dropped her arms and clutched the blankets by her side looking down at her hand and blushing furiously. She felt his hand on her chin again tilting her face up to his. 

"You are beautiful, Kagome. You should never be ashamed of your body." 

She smiled up at him and hesitantly reached out toward him. She let her hands wander lightly across his torso from his shoulders to his waist, taking special care to trace the crimson stripes that had teased her earlier from where they curved over his hipbones to where they ended up pointing at his navel. His skin was wonderfully sensitive. She could feel the muscles sliding beneath his skin, feel him twitching and squirming under her touch. Letting instinct guide her, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss into the hollow at the base of his throat. She felt a low vibration that was not a growl. 

"?You do purr." She murmured against his skin. 

"I do lots of things." 

Before she could ask what he meant by that, she found herself on her back pressed into the blankets by the weight of his body. She could feel his hardness pressed against her belly. He felt huge and impossibly hot. She tried to speak but his lips took hers before she could manage a sound. This was an entirely different kiss than the one before, hungry, demanding, promising things she did not understand. His tongue thrust into her mouth stroking her tongue, her teeth, the roof of her mouth. 

She moved her own tongue across his feeling the rougher texture and was delighted to feel that low rumble again. Emboldened, she pushed into his mouth running the tip of her tongue across his sharp fangs. Lack of oxygen finally forced her to pull away from him. 

While she gasped for air, he moved his mouth lower across her chin then along the line of her throat. When he closed over the wound he had made before, she could not help arching her entire body up against him and crying out. His fangs slipped into the half closed wounds, tearing through tender new skin and causing the blood to flow. Kagome felt the sting of tears; but before she could even begin to struggle or register fear, the pain stopped as quickly as it had begun. 

A peculiar tingle spread over the injured flesh. It was warm and pleasant and seemed to seep deep into her body from the site of the wound outward. She became very aware of Sesshoumaru?s spicy scent and a subtle musk that ignited the fire in her belly fanning it into a aching need she had never felt before. She moaned. 

He gazed up at her, amber eyes luminous, sharp fangs glistening wet with her blood and his saliva. Then he lunged up taking her lips fiercely. She could taste salt and copper and something else, something sweet that burned slightly like liquor. 

"Sesshoumaru," She whimpered against his mouth. "What?" 

"Shh, I don't want to hurt you and you've never been with a man before. Trust me." 

She murmured her acceptance and let the sensation spread through her body. Sesshoumaru nuzzled her neck gently then moved down to capture her breast in his mouth. She cried again in pleasure as his tongue laved her nipple. He moved between her breasts sucking and nibbling, occasionally grazing one or the other with the edge of his teeth. She was writhing beneath him when he moved farther down her body. 

When he buried his head between her legs, she started in surprise. When his tongue began stroking her, she could only moan his name as everything inside of her melted. A strange tension began to spread through her body. She tangled her hands in his hair and bucked beneath him. She felt as if her very being were being stretched to the breaking point, building up to something impossibly powerful. He slipped a clawed finger carefully inside her and moved it slowly. There was a flash of pain as he added a second finger but the pain seemed to be somewhere distant from herself like a half forgotten memory. Then all thought was swept away as the slowly building tension within her reached the snapping point. Her entire body convulsed and she felt as if her head were about to explode. She cried his name out in something close to awe as she came. 

The youkai withdrew his fingers and she whimpered at the loss of sensation. He did not make her wait long though. She felt something harder and far larger press into her body stretching her impossibly and then tearing through her maidenhood. She felt what must have been pain, but it was masked by the heady euphoria that had washed over her just after he had kissed her. 

Sesshoumaru stopped when he was completely inside giving her time to adjust to his size and the unfamiliar feel of a man filling her. When she cried out again impatiently, he laughed gently then began to move slowly at first then when she began to respond faster and harder. He stretched out over her and found her lips again taking her mouth as thoroughly as he was taking her body. He could taste her blood and his venom, smell the sweat of her body, the clean spicy scent of her hair, the heavy musk of their lovemaking. He could hear her heart thundering in her chest, her soft cries and moans, her ragged breathing that matched his own. 

Suddenly, he understood what his father had told him the one time he dared question why he wanted Inuyasha's mother when he could have had any youkai wench he wanted. He had told him that human lives were so short that they lived a lifetime with each heartbeat. 'Youkai are frozen by comparison, humans burn like a flame, brighter than lightning, hotter than a wildfire.' 

He had not understood then, but now he did. The girl, no, the woman beneath him burned like the sun. She gave all that she was with nothing held back. She had no idea what would happen afterwards. She was intelligent and clever, she must have considered the possible consequences of accepting his offer. For all she knew, he might kill her to bury the shame of having lain with a human. The poison he had given her might be fatal and not just enough to numb the pain and enhance her senses a little bit. At the very least, she could not know for certain that he would treat her like anything other than a whore after having his way with her. 

She had read him like a book, sensed his pain and fear, and come to him to offer comfort, he who had tried more than once to kill her. She had no fear of him, no fear of what might come next because she was lost in her own flames, in the bonfire of passion and heat. Gods help him, he understood what he father meant and he wanted to burn with her, to hold the flame of her life cradled safely against his heart and feel it melt away the ice and burn away the darkness. 

Her fingers dug into the flesh of his shoulders and the scent of his blood joined hers as she screamed her pleasure and bucked her body up into his with all her strength. He felt himself coming closer to his own release and shuddered. 

Kagome felt Sesshoumaru shudder above her and thrust her body up against his once more. It was happening again, that sweet release, harder and stronger than before. She cried out harshly. Her fingers tightened convulsively on his shoulders. She felt the sticky wetness of blood on her fingertips and had the strangest desire to taste that blood, to taste him. She had already given in to the ultimate temptation and it was not within her to resist this compulsion either. She raised her hand languidly to her mouth and licked the blood from her fingers. 

Sesshoumaru watched her hand intently, the tongue that swept out across her fingertips. She was tasting him taking his blood, his life inside her. It was the most erotic thing that the youkai lord had ever seen. He groaned and thrust deep into her one last time and let go filling her with his seed. He felt her body shivering beneath him, exhausted from its release, from the pleasure that he had been the first to teach it. 

He remained where he was, braced over her on his one arm for a long moment. When his breathing slowed a little, he carefully pulled out of her and moved to her side. She looked up at him questioningly with her huge brown eyes that were just a little glazed from the poison. He gazed back into her eyes reading them and her scent, contentment, exhaustion, vulnerability, happiness, but no trace of fear. He smiled into her eyes, just the slightest relaxing of his lips and a brief warmth flooding his eyes, but he knew that she saw it. He kissed her lips gently, they were swollen and bruised. They would hurt tomorrow, but no more than the rest of her body would hurt. 

"I've hurt you, you'll feel it tomorrow." 

"It was worth it; you're incredible!" She blushed violently. 

"You're not so bad yourself." 

He pulled her close and felt her snuggle tight against him. He murmured gently into her hair, "I'll have to take you back to the bast... to Inuyasha soon. He will know that we've mated by the change in your scent." 

"He'll like that, about as much as Jaken will, I guess." 

"Having a servant trained to be blindly obedient has its good points. Jaken can think what he will, but he would never dare question my decision." 

"Inuyasha will go ballistic." 

"Ballistic?" He pondered the odd phrase a moment then agreed that the term was fitting. "I will tell him if you wish. If he attacks me, it will be nothing new." 

"You won't hurt him, will you?" 

"I never have hurt him permanently have I?" 

"No you haven't," she looked up at him thoughtfully. "You're the better swordsman. You're better at tactics and unarmed combat. You could have killed him several times, you could even have killed him while he was sealed to that tree." She raised up on one elbow her mind suddenly placing the bits of the puzzle that had eluded her until now. 

"He was sealed helplessly on that tree for fifty years and during that time, no youkai or wild animal or human bandit bothered him. That seems impossible unless someone were protecting him during that time. It was you wasn't it? You patrolled that area and kept the other youkai and the bandits away. You protected him, but you didn't unseal him? I don't understand." 

He sighed. "There are things between me and Inuyasha that no one else could ever understand. Whatever happens, you can't interfere. It is something we have to come to grips with on our own and anyone caught in the middle might end up hurt or dead. Someday we will settle things. Maybe one of us will have to die. Maybe Hell will freeze over and one of us will bend enough to say 'I'm sorry.' Maybe something will change and draw us together." 

"You were right, Kagome. I didn't always hate him and he didn't always despise me, but that doesn't matter anymore. That picture you saw was a long time ago. Both of the children in it are long gone. Don't hurt yourself weeping for what might have been when now is all that we can change." 

She leaned up and kissed him gently. "I will respect your wishes, Sesshoumaru, as you have respected mine. I can't promise never to bring it up again, but I will try not to push. We'll tell Inuyasha together and handle whatever happens." 

She lay back down and rolled over onto her back looking up at the reflection of the candlelights on the ceiling. When she spoke her voice was hesitant. "Is this just a one time thing?" 

He thought a while about her question. "I don't think I can leave it at that, Kagome." 

"I'm glad." 

"You may not be for long." 

"Why not?" 

"If my idiot brother or that goofy wolf lays a hand on you, I'll have to bite it off." 

Her last thought before sliding off to sleep was 'He sounded serious about that threat. What have I gotten myself into now."


End file.
